Focus: Jesus is the light of the world; walk and delight in him.
Function: Draw joy and strength from Jesus as he reveals himself as the light of the world.
Text: John 9:1-41
It is the task of a teacher to turn on the light in his or her students. When teaching the Scriptures or proclaiming a portion of God’s Word, I find no greater delight than to observe the light of understanding in the eyes of my students or congregation.
I’ve noticed, for example, that when the lights go in a student’s eyes, there is an influx of energy, a release of passion, and an eagerness to pursue the pathway of understanding and knowledge.
Hope comes to the foreground; a sense of “I can do this,” or
a sense of “I can tackle this difficult subject,” comes over the student. And
motivation becomes the driving engine of a student’s desire to learn. At the
end of each day, a teacher may want to ask: “Have my students seen the
light?” Today, I ask you, members of Calvary, guests and visitors, young
and old alike: “Have you seen Jesus! Have you seen the light of the world?”
In his gospel, the apostle John tells us a fascinating
story. It’s a story with many angles, with many types of bait and hooks. For
example, what’s going on between the Pharisees and the blind man healed by
Jesus? What’s going on between the blind man’s parents and the religious
leaders? And what’s going on in that last encounter between Jesus and the blind
man, recorded in vs. 35-38?
When you crawl into that story of Jesus healing the blind man, and when you ponder the details in the story, you make startling discoveries.
For example, many times in the gospels we read that sick and broken people will look for Jesus. They are desperate, and look for relief and healing. In this story, however, we notice that it is Jesus who looks for the blind man. In vs. 1 we learn that Jesus “saw a man blind from birth.” That is, Jesus took note of him. And Jesus spent time with him. Then, later on in the story, when Jesus learns that the healed man had been thrown out of the presence of the Pharisees, and presumably thrown out of the synagogue, Jesus looks him up. Jesus goes out of his way to bring light or illumination to this man.
Ah, this is a fascinating story filled with twists and turns, filled with surprises and insights for us to catch and savor. Let me try to capture some of the themes in this story. First of all, it’s about seeing and not seeing; it’s about blindness of sight, and blindness of unbelief; it’s about darkness and light. It’s about seeing physically the light of day, and about seeing spiritually the light of world.
Secondly, it’s about people trying to come to grips with Jesus. It’s about Pharisees and neighbors who can’t or refuse to connect the dots between this man’s healing and the Lord Jesus. It’s about parents who are afraid of the religious leaders and their use or abuse of power to keep them out of the synagogue. It’s about you and me who cannot be mere or neutral bystanders and listeners of this story. We must respond to the fundamental question raised in the story.
And that leads me to my third observation: This story is about Jesus. Who is he? Now Jesus provides us with the answer. He does so at the beginning of the story when he says to his disciples. “While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” And Jesus does so close to the end of the story when he asks the physically restored man: “Do you believe in the Son of Man? ‘Who is he, sir,’ the man asked, ‘Tell me so that I may believe in him.’ Jesus said, ‘You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.’” And then we read that the lights go on; That is, the man whose physical eyesight Jesus had restored now sees with the eyes of faith who Jesus truly is. He says: “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped Jesus. Have you, congregation, seen the light? Are you walking and taking delight in Jesus, the light of the world?
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I want to focus on the first seven verses of the story. There we observe the following details:
a. Jesus takes note of a man blind from birth. That man was destined to be a beggar; he is helpless in terms of finding a job and taking care of himself. Someone, (his parents maybe?) had to lead him to a public place, where he could appeal for mercy and some daily food by begging.
b. As Jesus takes note of the blind man, Jesus’ disciples ponder why this man was born blind. A common notion was that physical deformities and handicaps should be blamed on the sins committed by such a person or by that person’s parents. But Jesus points into a different direction: “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.” Now take note and ask yourself: how is the work of God displayed in this man’s life as the story of this man unfolds?
c) Here’s the next detail: building upon his comment about the work of God, the Lord Jesus goes on and says: “As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me.” Now ask yourself: Who is sending Jesus? And what is the relationship between Jesus and the Sender? God the Father is the Sender; Jesus, God the Son is the One Sent. They are One.
Keep this detail in mind when you consider the Pool of Siloam. For Jesus (who is sent and One with the Father or the Sender to do his Father’s work) sends the blind man to the Pool of Sent (or the Pool of “one who has been sent”).
d. Then there is that saliva from Jesus’ mouth mixed with dust from the ground. “How gross!” you might say. But I say, “How telling!” What a marvelous way to teach the meaning of “I am the light of the world”!
Let me pull these details together for you. In the opening chapter of his gospel, the Apostle John says: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He (that is Jesus) was with God in the beginning. Through him (that is Jesus) all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men.” Get this: in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, including mankind. God did so by speaking the logos, the word for ex. “Let there be light.” We learn from John that Jesus is the eternal Son of God through whom and for whom God the Father created all things.
In Colossians 1:15 and 16 the Apostle Paul teaches the same thing: (Jesus) “is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created, things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities, all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”
Congregation, as the question of Jesus’ identity is woven
through the story, we now notice that Jesus reveals his identity by what he
says and does. He is the light of the world; he must do the work of his Father,
the One who sent him. So what does Jesus do? He takes up the work of
re-creating, re-shaping, re-storing the work that was begun in the womb of this
blind man’s mother.
This man was born without the ability to see. He had no physical, natural eyesight. So, Jesus spits in the dust (bringing us back to Genesis, to the time when God began his work of creating man). Mixing the dust with his saliva, the Lord Jesus anoints this man with the mud on his non-seeing eyes.
And then, so that many people could witness the miracle of restoration, the Lord Jesus sends the man to the Pool of Siloam, where the actual restoration of this man’s eyesight takes place. (Imagine the sight: a blind man, mud on his eyes, shuffling toward the Pool of Siloam).
It’s not the water of Siloam. It’s not the mud that contains the cure. It’s not even the spittle of Jesus that brings healing. Jesus, the Creator and Restorer of all things—He is the source of healing. He is the source of the spittle; he is the One who forms man from dust; he is the One who heals us creatures of the dust; Jesus is the one who can take our dust and re-shape our dust, our bodies into perfectly healed and wholesome bodies.
God, in his inscrutable wisdom created this blind man. God, demonstrating his incredible love, sent Jesus to shed light in the darkness of this man. Jesus, in turn, does the work of God, the Father. And this man is physically healed, restored.
But that’s only part of the healing. What makes Jesus truly the light of the world is Jesus illuminating, enlightening this man’s heart and mind. Jesus heals this man from spiritual blindness, and as a result, this man ends up worshiping the Lord Jesus.
Jesus is the light of the world; he heals, restores, and promises to make us whole. Have you seen the light? Do you walk in Jesus’ light and take delight in him?
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Are you without Jesus today? Are you keeping your distance from him? Are you running away from him? Do you mock him? Scoff at him? Or fight him? Get on your knees! Acknowledge him! And worship him. For he is your light as long as there is the day.
Jesus said: “Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” Friends, there will come a day—the great and final Day of Judgment, the day of Christ’s final coming—when you and I no longer will have an opportunity to repent from our sins, to find rest for our souls, to respond in trust to Jesus’ offer of life. Then we will no longer be able to do the works of faith—producing fruit of love, and kindness and joy. Then we will no longer be able to serve Jesus and advance his influence. That Day of Judgment will turn into eternal night or darkness for all who refuse to bow their knees and worship Jesus today.
But until that time, we can still do the work of repentance, of actively responding with faith, of serving the Lord Jesus today, of walking in the light of Christ.
Why turn to Jesus today? Why walk and delight in him, the light of the world?
Because Jesus promises full restoration; he will finish his creation—now distorted by evil, sin, and misery—he will finish his creative work by restoring, reshaping and renewing us and all that belongs to him.
There will come a day—and in Jesus that day comes to us now—when there will be no more sickness, no more handicaps, no more disabilities, no more anxiety, no more loneliness, no more brokenness, no more pain and suffering, no more funerals, no more dying. There will come a day when everything will be made whole and new. Turn to Jesus now. See the light! And delight in Jesus. Now and always!
In the name of the Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit. Amen.